It was Jan. 1, 2021, when the San Diego Sheriff’s Department received a name from a person saying his pal, Jade Janks, might need killed her stepfather, Tom Merriman.
Assistant district attorneys Jorge Del Portillo and Teresa Pham inform “48 Hours” correspondent Tracy Smith that the caller “informed sheriff’s deputies she confessed to drugging him, suffocating him and strangling him to demise.”
The name triggered a seek for Merriman. His physique was quickly discovered, and Janks was arrested and charged along with his homicide. But she stated she was harmless.
A STRANGE PHONE CALL
San Diego County, California, is an idyllic place — more often than not.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): Well, I’ve received a state of affairs, final evening … A pal of mine requested me to come back over. She stated that she had probably killed her stepdad …
CALLER:I stewed on this all evening … I barely slept … and I’m scared to demise … I do not need to be a part of this … I did not have something to do together with her …
That frightened cellphone name got here in New Year’s Day 2021. The caller stated his one-time girlfriend could have dedicated a homicide.
CALLER: I do not know if she actually did this.
Jorge Del Portillo: The sheriff’s division acquired a name from a man that stated, my pal confessed to me final evening that she murdered her stepfather.
San Diego County Deputy D.A. Jorge Del Portillo.
Jorge Del Portillo: He informed deputies, “Hey … I do not know if what she’s saying is true, I did not see him, I — however that is one thing I needed to inform the police.”
The alleged sufferer was a 64-year-old man named Tom Merriman, who lived in Solana Beach, California.
Ramona Hamilton: I preferred him. I assumed he was very good.
Ramona Hamilton and her husband George had been Tom’s neighbors. Ramona knew him higher, and she or he came upon Tom additionally ran an uncommon enterprise: a butterfly farm.
Ramona Hamilton: I’m a gardener and I really like butterflies.
Pat Flanagan additionally preferred butterflies. He was Tom Merriman’s enterprise companion out on the farm.
Pat Flanagan: He was my finest pal.
Tracy Smith: Did he grow to be form of a butterfly knowledgeable?
Pat Flanagan: Oh, he’s a butterfly knowledgeable.
Tracy Smith: You say, “he’s.”
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tracy Smith: You nonetheless discuss him within the current tense?
Pat Flanagan: Yeah. I do (emotional).
It was on Dec. 31, 2020, that Tom Merriman was final seen alive. Ramona and George Hamilton noticed him in his stepdaughter’s SUV of their shared driveway.
George Hamilton: And he was sitting on this facet on the passenger facet, along with his ft out, and his walker out in entrance of him and he regarded like hell.
Tom had simply spent greater than two weeks within the hospital and a rehab heart after a foul fall. He additionally had coronary heart and liver issues.
Ramona Hamilton: He regarded terrible. I do not even know if he knew me.
Tracy Smith: But on the time, it simply appeared like perhaps he received despatched dwelling from the hospital, closely drugged.
Ramona Hamilton: Heavily drugged — sure.
George Hamilton: That’s all we knew. That’s all we knew.
And then George Hamilton noticed Tom’s stepdaughter, 37-year-old Jade Janks. Tom Merriman had come into Jade’s life when she was 15, marrying her mother.
Jade and Tom had been apparently shut; she lived proper subsequent door. On this present day, Jade had simply pushed him dwelling.
Ramona Hamilton: He referred to as her his daughter.
Tracy Smith: He referred to as Jade his daughter?
Ramona Hamilton: Yes.
George Hamilton: Right.
Tracy Smith: They appeared shut.
Ramona Hamilton: And they appear very shut.
Ramona Hamilton: She was fixing dinner for him each evening.
Ramona Hamilton: She appeared to maintain him —
Tracy Smith: What’d you consider Jade?
Ramona Hamilton: I assumed she was a really fairly lady.
Jade had executed some work in Ramona’s house.
Ramona Hamilton: She was an inside … decorator.
Heather Pearce: That’s Jade. … she could be a tomboy and a girlie woman all in the identical day. … she will be able to … get herself soiled for work, carrying rocks and concrete in her pickup truck … And … we’re dressed up … able to go to, like, a pleasant fancy dinner.
Heather Pearce grew up subsequent door to Jade in San Diego County.
Heather Pearce: Jade was very cool … I cherished being round her.
Jade was 13 years older.
Heather Pearce: She’s undoubtedly a little bit greater than an enormous sister and rather less than a mother … her vitality was simply very sturdy … loving and caring and real and, so whenever you’re round her, you’re feeling good.
She additionally knew Jade’s stepdad, Tom Merriman.
Heather Pearce: I believe she at all times simply cherished him and cared about him.
Back at Tom’s place in Solana Beach, it was now Jan. 1 — the day after he’d gotten again from the rehab heart, the day after the Hamiltons had seen him trying so poorly within the driveway.
This time they solely noticed Jade within the driveway. She was standing by a pile of trash and containers.
George Hamilton: I noticed her out on the facet right here with the containers and cartons … a short while later … there is a knock on the door … And she come to the door to inform me that she’d made a large number down there … however she’d clear it up later.
It was a number of hours later when legislation enforcement pulled into their driveway.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): I’m scared to demise … I do not need to be a part of this … I did not have something to do together with her …
They got here to research that unusual cellphone name — the one which claimed Tom Merriman had been murdered.
Jorge Del Portillo: They had been looking for Tom. Where is Tom?
Jorge Del Portillo: They walked by this pile of trash within the driveway.
Jorge Del Portillo: They — they knocked on his door. They went inside.
They did not discover Tom, however they did see his stepdaughter.
Jorge Del Portillo: When they noticed Jade Janks driving out of her driveway, they pulled her over, introduced her in for questioning and requested that very query, “Where is Tom?”
At the police station, Jade stated she was chilly, in order that they gave her a blanket.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
DETECTIVE: Well, we’re looking for Tom … have you learnt the place Tom is?
JADE JANKS: No.
DETECTIVE: His household hasn’t seen him for over 48 hours, so —
JADE JANKS: He simply received launched from the hospital yesterday.
DETECTIVE: OK. Did you see him yesterday?
JADE JANKS: Yeah. I picked him up from the hospital.
DETECTIVE: OK. Do you already know the place he went?
JADE JANKS: No … what are you able to inform me apart from he is simply lacking?
DETECTIVE: We do not know the place he is at, we’re looking for him.
Eventually they let Jade go, however there was nonetheless no signal of Tom. Officers spent all evening combing by way of his house on the lookout for clues.
Then, simply after the primary morning mild, one of many officers was strolling down the driveway in the direction of Tom’s house when she noticed that pile of trash.
There’s a wheelbarrow, some containers and a few baggage.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
Jorge Del Portillo: She eliminated a trash bag from that trash and instantly noticed the silhouette of a person.
Tracy Smith: And there he was. Tom Merriman.
Jorge Del Portillo: Tom Merriman … laid useless and buried.
HOW DID TOM MERRIMAN DIE?
Jorge Del Portillo: I’ve by no means seen that. … I’ve by no means seen a case the place a physique was buried beneath a pile of trash within the driveway.
The obvious crime scene was smack in the midst of the driveway of the luxurious compound only a mile from the seaside.
Jorge Del Portillo: He was sporting the hospital bracelet that he was simply within the hospital. … the identical T-shirt and the identical pajamas that he was discharged.
Jorge Del Portillo: As quickly as they discovered the physique … they knew we’ve got our suspect, they usually made the arrest.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
On the morning of Jan. 2, 2021, Jade Janks was arrested and charged with Tom Merriman’s homicide. But issues had been about to get difficult.
Jorge Del Portillo: She lawyered up and did not need to reply any extra questions.
So, authorities continued to work the case — beginning with that cellphone name.
CALLER (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): It appears like she killed this man.
That name had come from that pal of Jade’s — a person named Adam Siplyak. He informed police she referred to as him to her house, after which she requested him for a favor.
ADAM SIPLYAK: … and requested me to maneuver the physique together with her …
DISPATCHER: OK.
ADAM SIPLYAK: I stated, “I am unable to make it easier to” … and I by no means noticed the physique.
Adam Siplyak could not have seen the physique that evening, however, ultimately, he did inform police that Jade confessed to him. That she had knocked Tom out with an overdose of drugs after which strangled him.
It was a fairly dramatic story. And authorities had been assured the post-mortem would verify that story — there could be bodily proof that Tom was strangled to demise. But that is not what occurred.
Teresa Pham: I used to be really there for the post-mortem.
Assistant District Attorney Theresa Pham, who led the investigation, talked to the health worker.
Theresa Pham: So, what they discovered was, sadly, not numerous bodily proof.
Tracy Smith: Right. So, you might have this supposed confession of her saying she — she strangled him, however no proof of strangulation.
Jorge Del Portillo: That’s proper.
The ultimate post-mortem report stated that the reason for Tom Merriman’s demise was “acute Zolpidem intoxication.” Zolpidem is the generic title for the sleeping tablet Ambien.
Tracy Smith: Is it attainable that Tom Merriman died accidentally? … he was sick. It’s not that many tablets that he took.
Jorge Del Portillo: Certainly, it is attainable … however the proof belied that notion. This was no accident.
But even when the post-mortem did not level to strangulation, investigators say different proof clearly pointed to homicide.
Tracy Smith: Jade’s cellphone was a gold mine.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was a gold mine.
Jade’s cellphone was stuffed with texts.
Tracy Smith: How would you categorize these textual content messages?
Teresa Pham: Suspicious.
Jorge Del Portillo: Incriminating.
Teresa Pham: A plan.
According to prosecutors, that plan was to eliminate Tom Merriman a method or one other.
Investigators say it began on Dec. 23 — that is a few week earlier than Tom’s physique was discovered. Tom was within the hospital after that unhealthy fall. Jade says she was cleansing up his house when she discovered one thing.
Teresa Pham: So, she’s at Tom’s house. And his laptop computer, I assume, will need to have been in sleep mode or one thing like that, however she knocked into it, and it wakened. … And on the screensaver is a nude {photograph} of her within the bathe.
And there was extra. Much extra.
Teresa Pham: She will need to have had his password. So, as soon as she was capable of get into his laptop computer … was when she was capable of finding, much more of nude images of her.
Tracy Smith: Hundreds.
Teresa Pham: Hundreds.
Jorge Del Portillo: These had been images that she took willingly together with her companion on the time. Some had been of her within the bathe bare.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
Authorities do not know the way Merriman received these photos, however Jade says she by no means gave them to him, and prosecutors say she panicked.
Jorge Del Portillo: In her phrases, she was past freaked out. That’s what she wrote to a pal, that she could not bathe alone, that she was vomiting at simply the thought of taking a look at a bathe based mostly on what she had found.
Jorge Del Portillo: She’s sleeping with … a knife on the nightstand simply in case he comes early dwelling from the hospital.
According to prosecutors, that is when Jade launches her plan. How? One of her buddies connects her with a man. A man the prosecutors referred to as “The Fixer.”
Jorge Del Portillo: There’s a textual content message the place he tells Jade,” if in case you have an issue, I might repair it for you.” And that is how we got here up with the label, “The Fixer.”
The so-called “fixer” was a person named Alan Roach.
Tracy Smith: Who is Alan Roach?
Jorge Del Portillo: Alan Roach is a man — He’s a safety guard. … That’s what he does. … however I believe he makes himself out to be another person that he is not.
Teresa Pham: We had been considering Jade views him because the character in “Pulp Fiction” — somebody that you simply attain out to whenever you need certainly one of your issues fastened. And that is what he was, he was the fixer.
Tracy Smith: He was the fixer.
Tracy Smith: Is Alan a success man?
Jorge Del Portillo: He will not be a success man. And — however what’s necessary is, what does Jade suppose Alan is.
Prosecutors say Jade wished her fixer to assist her eliminate Tom.
Jorge Del Portillo: She had a plan that she caught to.
Tracy Smith: The plan was homicide.
Jorge Del Portillo: The plan was homicide.
JADE JANKS TAKES THE STAND
It was now December 2022 — two years after Tom Merriman’s physique was discovered beneath that pile of rubbish — and Jade Janks was about to face trial for his homicide.
Tracy Smith: Let me simply ask you flat out, did Jade Janks homicide her stepfather Tom Merriman?
Marc Carlos: Jade has maintained her innocence all through this whole, uh, incident.
Jade’s lawyer, Marc Carlos, insists this was not a homicide, and says Jade had no purpose to kill her stepfather.
Marc Carlos: Finding nude images of your self on a stepfather’s laptop would make you offended, you already know, may make you break off relationships with him. … But sufficient to kill anyone? I do not suppose so.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
He says Tom’s demise was an unlucky accident, introduced on by his poor well being and self-administered pharmaceuticals.
Marc Carlos: I believe he took the medicine himself. … He had a number of substances in his system. I believe he made a cocktail of the medication that he had with him and had a foul response to it and prompted his — his demise.
At trial, Jade was supported by household and buddies, together with her organic father, Steve Janks, and her longtime pal, Heather Pearce.
Heather Pearce: Tom was a large number, an absolute mess for a very long time … there isn’t any manner that she had like a plan and first diploma and all of that. I used to be like, there isn’t any manner as a result of that is not Jade.
Prosecutors Jorge Del Portillo and Theresa Pham had been frightened the jury may really feel that Jade herself was the sufferer.
Teresa Pham: She’s a sympathetic defendant.
Jorge Del Portillo: She is.
Teresa Pham: I imply she discovered bare images of herself on her stepdad’s laptop.
Jade takes the stand to inform the jury what occurred in her personal phrases.
Jade says that ever since she met Tom when she was a young person, they maintained a powerful bond.
JADE JANKS: It’s laborious to come back by anyone you simply really feel you could belief utterly. And I did really feel that manner. … I referred to him as my father and he might name me his daughter.
Which is why, Jade tells the jury, it was so devastating to search out these images on Dec. 23 whereas Tom was within the hospital, and she or he was cleansing his house.
JADE JANKS: I bumped the mouse on his desktop laptop and it — it shook the display awake and I regarded and there is a image of feminine breasts on the display. … And I look … and … these — these are my breasts. … I — I simply — I could not consider it. I — I used to be in full shock.
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Jade describes discovering much more on Tom’s laptop.
JADE JANKS: There was a rolling display, like a slideshow of images of me that was taken through the years.
MARC CARLOS: OK. What sort of images had been they?
JADE JANKS (crying): They had been bare images.
MARC CARLOS: OK, do you, did you ever give bare images to, uh, to your stepfather?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: I imply, did you ever present him bare images of your self?
JADE JANKS (crying): No.
Tracy Smith: And how did he get these images?
Marc Carlos: Jade would not know.
Tracy Smith: These had been images that Jade had taken of herself?
Marc Carlos: Jade and varied boyfriends.
MARC CARLOS: Have you ever made any, uh, sexual overtures towards your stepfather?
JADE JANKS: No. No.
MARC CARLOS: Did you inform him that you simply had, uh, nude images of your self?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: You by no means confirmed him something much like these, appropriate?
JADE JANKS: No, he was my dad.
Tom was nonetheless within the hospital, however Jade says she did not really feel protected.
MARC CARLOS: You had been afraid that he was going to come back again and discover out that you simply had discovered the images, sure?
JADE JANKS: Yes.
MARC CARLOS: And you had been frightened about how he may react towards you.
JADE JANKS: Yes.
MARC CARLOS: Right. And he lived subsequent door to you.
JADE JANKS: Yes.
And that is why Jade says she received in contact with Alan Roach, who labored in safety, the day she discovered these images.
MARC CARLOS: So, why did you suppose that you simply wanted anyone like Alan Roach?
Jade pauses as she considers her reply.
JADE JANKS: I — I used to be — I used to be scared. I imply, once I first noticed the images, I — I could not even use the toilet. … I simply felt so disgusting. I could not bathe both. I used to be simply scared. … I used to be petrified of being, you already know, nude and weak. And I simply — I wished anyone to simply look out for me and ensure that, you already know, I used to be protected.
Over the following few days, Tom was moved from the hospital to a rehab heart, and Jade felt she needed to act.
JADE JANKS: I am unable to proceed simply residing subsequent door to him and never feeling protected or feeling like this. I imply, I’ve to do one thing.
MARC CARLOS: When you say, “I wanted to do one thing,” did it’s essential to kill him?
JADE JANKS: No! … I wished Tom to simply go away and depart me alone.
According to Jade, Alan Roach was planning to come back over after she introduced Tom dwelling, to assist her confront him.
JADE JANKS: I wished Alan to principally, you already know, clarify to him this — this isn’t OK. Or I might clarify it, however Alan simply be there simply in case.
Jade says that on Dec. 31, regardless of her emotions, she was doing every part she might to assist Tom who, she says, appeared preoccupied with discovering medicine.
JADE JANKS: He began calling at about 6:45 within the morning and he is asking me to get him codeine, which I do not actually perceive. … He says that he hasn’t, I believe, slept and he needs to relaxation.
Jade took Tom out of the rehab at a little bit after 11 a.m. He had a bag of medicine with him, together with Ambien. Remember, the post-mortem says Ambien is what killed him. Jade says, virtually as quickly as Tom received into her automobile, he additionally helped himself to her prescription medicines.
JADE JANKS: He saved saying issues, “did you might have any painkillers, is thi,s it? Oh, right here” after which he simply form of took it.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
Jade says Tom appeared superb when she stopped at a procuring plaza and texted Alan Roach to come back meet her. She went into a few shops whereas she waited to listen to again.
JADE JANKS: I used to be simply getting began on a, um, a home venture, so I simply went to go get provides and form of store round
Jade purchased gloves, towels and a nylon wire—and a few spray paint. She says this stuff had been for a portray venture.
JADE JANKS: I — sometimes, I lay plastic down … and form of enclose it in order that I’m not getting paint on all of the, the foliage.
Jade nonetheless hadn’t heard again from Roach and took Tom dwelling. She says Tom was now too groggy to stroll on his personal, and she or he could not get him out of her automobile. She says she was frightened about him and drove him again to the rehab for assist.
JADE JANKS: I simply defined, you already know, my dad’s simply been launched and one thing’s mistaken. You have to deliver him again. They would not — they would not let me inside, although. … they’re fairly adamant with COVID. I could not go inside.
Jade returned dwelling with Tom, however says she was nonetheless not capable of get him out of her automobile. Roach had lastly texted again to say he could not make it over in spite of everything, however despatched his pal, a person named Brian Salomon, to assist her get Tom inside.
MARC CARLOS: And had you ever met Brian Salomon earlier than?
JADE JANKS: No.
Jade says Salomon would not assist her with Tom and left immediately. So, Jade reached out to her pal Adam Siplyak and requested him to come back over. Siplyak arrived later that night.
JADE JANKS: I simply stated — I imply, I — I — I used to be — I used to be simply in tears. I had stated that, you already know, I would like — I need to get him into my home, or, into his home.
Jade says Siplyak shortly received upset and left with out serving to her. And that is the place Jade’s story would not line up with Siplyak’s: keep in mind, Adam was the one who referred to as police on New Year’s Day.
ADAM SIPLYAK (to San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept.): … she stated she had probably killed her stepdad …
Jade says she did not confess to something. She says Siplyak was distressed by how sick Tom regarded and that is why he would not assist her. After he left, Jade says she did not know what else to do and tried to get Tom located in her automobile for the evening so he might sleep off no matter he had taken.
JADE JANKS: I made certain he is snug. And he had pillows, and I attempt to keep in mind… Yeah. I imply, he had a blanket.
The subsequent morning, within the chilly mild of New Year’s Day, Jade says Tom was nonetheless in her automobile when she realized the worst had occurred.
MARC CARLOS: Did you contact Mr. Merriman?
JADE JANKS: Yes.
MARC CARLOS: What did you’re feeling?
JADE JANKS (crying:) I — I attempted to drag his leg and his pajamas and lifted it. His leg was chilly.
MARC CARLOS: Ms. Janks, did you suppose Tom Merriman was useless at that time?
JADE JANKS: I knew he was.
JADE JANKS’ INCRIMINATING TEXTS
After Jade informed the jury how she discovered Tom’s physique, her personal lawyer challenged her.
MARC CARLOS: Did you concentrate on calling 911?
JADE JANKS (crying): Um, I used to be scared to.
MARC CARLOS: Why had been you scared?
JADE JANKS: I did not need to get blamed. I imply, I simply — I used to be the one which picked him up. … And I did not need to get blamed for — for killing him.
And she tried to clarify what she did along with his physique.
JADE JANKS (crying): I continued to — to drag him out. I nonetheless wished to get him into his home. I — I imply, I did not — I did not know what else to do.
JADE JANKS (crying): I panicked. … I put the blanket over him, and I received empty containers and simply form of stacked it, made it look similar to a pile of particles.
Jade could have left Tom’s physique within the driveway, however she says she had by no means meant him hurt.
MARC CARLOS: I imply, did you need your stepfather useless?
JADE JANKS: No.
MARC CARLOS: Ms. Janks, did you seize him with your personal two palms —
JADE JANKS (crying): No, I’d by no means.
MARC CARLOS: — and did you strangle him?
JADE JANKS (crying): No.
MARC CARLOS: Would you — would you ever have executed that to … Tom Merriman?
JADE JANKS: I would not try this to anyone. No.
And then, the prosecutors informed their model of the story.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You lied to the police about the place Tom was?
JADE JANKS: I did not … I simply requested for an lawyer, and I saved asking for one.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You did not need the police to know that Tom died in your automobile?
JADE JANKS: I wasn’t making an attempt to cover it, however I did not need to go alone and inform them that.
Prosecutors stated Jade was mendacity to cowl up her plan.
Jorge Del Portillo: The plan was to drug him, suffocate him and stage it to appear like an overdose.
Del Portillo says, after she picked Tom up from the rehab, Jade used his personal prescription sleeping tablets to knock him out.
And he says he has proof: Jade’s DNA is on these packs of tablets.
Jorge Del Portillo: The package deal of Zolpidem, which is the Ambien sleeping tablets, that had the defendant’s DNA on it, however not Tom’s. And I believe it is necessary that the jury heard that, that it was Jade Janks’ DNA on that Zolpidem pack.
And in line with prosecutors. There’s way more proof, too.
Jade, they are saying, left a real-time path of clues that day. Remember her cellphone — the one they referred to as “a gold mine”? It seems it was full of texts. Messages that they are saying outlined her plan to kill.
Theresa Phan: We’re speaking 11, 12 minutes after being discharged, she sends a textual content message to Alan, the fixer, saying, “I simply dosed the hell out of him.”
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: When somebody says, I dosed the hell out of them, you’ll agree with me, that meaning somebody gave one other individual a complete lot of medicine, proper?
JADE JANKS: I assume it is a poor phrasing.
Del Portillo thinks Jade’s clarification is nonsense.
He says, first, she drugged Tom, after which she wanted to stall for a bit and her texts even say that.
JADA JANKS TEXT: Stopping at Dixieland to stall.
Jorge Del Portillo: She was stalling for the medication — to actually kick in and make him asleep and unaware of what she was about to do.
Jorge Del Portillo: She’s stalling to see if this man, Alan Roach, can come by and assist her commit the homicide.
And keep in mind these provides Jade stated she picked up for a portray venture? According to the prosecutors, they had been really Jade’s “homicide equipment.”
Jorge Del Portillo: She goes to the shop and buys this homicide equipment. … zip ties, gloves, rope, and towels.
Prosecutors say, as much as that time, Jade’s plan was on monitor. But by a little bit after midday, issues began to go mistaken.
Jorge Del Portillo: You might see from the textual content messages that she was in a panic.
Jade’s texting her so-called “fixer” Alan Roach. She writes, “He’s waking up.” And she provides, “Can you come over?”
But the “fixer” will not be responding.
Jorge Del Portillo: This plot was a complete mess, and it fell aside immediately.
Finally, “the fixer” texts her again. He says he cannot come, however he is sending somebody he is aware of — that man named Brian Salomon.
Tracy Smith: OK. So, the plan … is Brian will deliver Tom into the home.
Teresa Pham: Yep.
Jorge Del Portillo: Brian Salomon later informed us that when he went over to assist Jade … that she informed him one thing that he’ll always remember … “I would like you to deliver him inside, strangle him, and I’ll maintain the remaining.”
Brian Salomon shortly left the home with out doing something. And quickly, Jade is again texting the lacking “fixer” once more.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: At 3 p.m., you texted Alan, “he is waking up and I’m unsure how for much longer I can management my mood …” is that proper?
JADE JANKS: Yes, however that was to Alan.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You texted Alan, “he is waking up and getting far more aggressive. So, it is far more actual.” True?
JADE JANKS: True.
JADE JANKS: I believe, once more, I used to be simply panicking and making an attempt to induce Alan to come back over.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You would agree with me that this seems to be very suspicious, this textual content message?
JADE JANKS: Oh, yeah.
Jade texts Alan once more: “I am unable to hold a kicking physique in my truck.”
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: Now that we all know Tom was discovered useless in his driveway beneath a pile of trash that you simply put collectively, that this textual content message seems to be very suspicious. You’d agree with me, proper?
JADE JANKS: I imply, I — sure.
It’s now round 4 p.m. Roach has disappeared.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: You texted Alan, “F*** he is up. I assume I’m alone.” True?
JADE JANKS: True.
Tracy Smith: How do you suppose she killed Tom?
Jorge Del Portillo: We consider that the proof exhibits that she put a bag over his head … When the bag will not be working quick sufficient, she has to strangle him, and she or he has no different selection. … It’s too late to again out now.
Investigators even discovered a plastic bag in Jade’s automobile. It had her DNA on the skin and Tom’s on the within. But there’s an enormous drawback with the prosecution’s case, and that is the post-mortem.
The post-mortem by no means stated Tom was strangled; there weren’t any marks on his neck. So, what occurred? How might Jade probably have strangled him to demise?
Jorge Del Portillo: That introduced — an enormous issue for us strategically of going ahead in trial.
Tracy Smith: Right. So, you might have this supposed confession of her saying she — she strangled him, however no proof of strangulation.
Teresa Pham and Jorge Del Portillo: Right.
Turns out the prosecutors had a solution for that.
They say it’s very attainable to strangle somebody to demise with out leaving marks if the sufferer is already knocked out.
Teresa Pham: I believe that’s a part of the plan, is to dose him simply sufficient to the place he is incapacitated. … So, if you happen to’re unconscious, your respiration is already depressed.
Teresa Pham: Once somebody is already unconscious … it doesn’t require that a lot stress and wouldn’t depart bruising. It wouldn’t depart breakage of the cartilage that is contained in the throat, it could not depart bodily proof.
Jorge Del Portillo: It solely takes 4 kilos of stress to kill, to chop off the blood provide to your head. And whenever you and I shook palms earlier right this moment, that was about 11 kilos of stress. So, it is lower than a handshake to kill.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
After she murdered Tom, prosecutors say she left his physique in her automobile in a single day, and the following morning, Jade needed to do one thing about it.
In a narrative stuffed with unusual twists, this can be the oddest: prosecutors say Tom’s physique was nonetheless in Jade’s automobile and she or he wished to make his demise appear like an accident — like he’d overdosed on his personal drugs. But she could not get his 180-pound physique out of the automobile, and into his house, and nobody would assist her. So, they are saying she drove to a hospital with Tom useless behind her automobile, picked up a wheelchair, put it in her automobile and drove again to Tom’s place.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: How did you get the wheelchair in your automobile if Tom was nonetheless in there?
JADE JANKS: Oh, it is — it is large. … The trunk was up, Tom was form of, you already know, his legs had been akimbo, and he was laying down and I form of hoisted it up into the again window of the 4Runner then rolled down.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: When you had been doing this, at this level do you know Tom was useless?
JADE JANKS (sighs): I did however I did not need to understand it but.
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: So, you suspected Tom was useless and also you’re at Scripps Hospital and you do not inform anybody on the hospital that Tom may want some assist.
JADE JANKS: Correct.
And there was only one thing more.
On the day the cops got here by on the lookout for Tom they did not know something but — simply that Tom could be lacking. Jade jumped into her automobile.
Teresa Pham: When she was pulling out of her driveway after they had been on the point of do … the welfare examine, she was pulling out of her driveway, and she or he was getting detained after being pulled over. The final textual content message on her cellphone was to Alan Roach saying, “lose my quantity.”
Tracy Smith: What does that say to you?
Jorge Del Portillo: Get rid of the proof.
THE VERDICT COMES IN
Jorge Del Portillo: That was the most important hurdle in our case, we really feel, was the jury may dislike Tom Merriman a lot that they might vote to both acquit or scale back the homicide to one thing else.
As Jade’s trial is drawing to an in depth, prosecutor Jorge Del Portillo needs to ensure the jury’s consideration is on what Jade Janks has executed, and never on Tom.
Jorge Del Portillo: Tom was not on trial. This wasn’t his trial. He did not get a trial. … She was his choose, jury and executioner. And so, all of it comes again to Jade.
In his closing argument to the jury, Marc Carlos emphasizes what he says are the weaknesses of the prosecution’s case.
MARC CARLOS: What sort of proof do we’ve got? We have numerous hypothesis. … It’s hypothesis upon hypothesis upon hypothesis.
He argues Adam Siplyak’s story that Jade confessed is a lie.
MARC CARLOS: Mr. Siplyak — no credibility. He needs to get out of one thing that he thinks might need occurred.
And he says Brian Salomon, who additionally claimed Jade confessed to him that day, cannot be telling the reality.
MARC CARLOS: He claims that instantly — and this was his testimony — instantly upon getting into, she says, “he is within the automobile, go strangle him.” This is anyone that Jade Janks has by no means met earlier than.
Neither Adam Siplyak, Brian Salomon nor Alan Roach was charged with any crime on this case, and Marc Carlos urges the jury to stay to what he calls the reality.
MARC CARLOS: And the reality is that they have zero — zero proof to help a homicide.
But Jorge del Portillo will get to make the final argument the jury will hear.
San Diego Superior Court North County Division
JORGE DEL PORTILLO: It begins with “I simply dosed the hell out of him.” The plan is beginning. And with Alan, it ends with “Lose my quantity. I’m getting pulled over.” And buried in between all of these textual content messages is a homicide plot.
Jorge Del Portillo: Find her responsible of homicide as a result of the proof proves it, the legislation requires it, and justice calls for it.
The jury went out that afternoon and was again the following morning to proceed their deliberations.
Jorge Del Portillo: Jury is available in at 9 a.m. We get the decision at 9:30 a.m. “We have a verdict.” … We had been shocked.
Teresa Pham: We had been a little bit bit nervous.
Jorge Del Portillo: The quickest verdict that I’ve ever had was quarter-hour, and it was a not responsible. So, I do not put numerous inventory in fast verdicts.
Tom’s enterprise companion Pat Flanagan received a textual content about it.
Pat Flanagan: I used to be very anxious. My palms had been — my palms had been sweating. I used to be nervous.
JUDGE ROBERT KEARNEY: Has the jury reached its verdict?
JUROR #9: We have, Your Honor.
CLERK: We, the jury, within the above-entitled trigger discover the defendant, Jade Sasha Janks, responsible of the crime of homicide…
CBS News
Guilty of first-degree homicide. Jade seems surprised.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was an enormous reduction.
Teresa Pham: Relief.
Jorge Del Portillo: It was an absolute reduction.
Tracy Smith: And whenever you heard that phrase, responsible.
Pat Flanagan: It — it felt proper.
Pat Flannagan says he noticed Jade’s response to the decision later – on-line.
Pat Flanagan: I nonetheless return and watch that typically.
Tracy Smith: Why?
Pat Flanagan: Because I really feel unhealthy for Tom. … He died buried in trash. … now she will get to really feel a little bit of that ache that we have all been feeling for years.
But there’s nonetheless the matter of these images.
Tracy Smith: Jade stated that she discovered nude images of herself on Tom’s laptop.
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tracy Smith: Do you consider that?
Pat Flanagan: I — I am unable to disprove it. I discover it — I — I do not need to consider it.
Tracy Smith: It’s attention-grabbing you say you do not need to consider it.
Pat Flanagan: Yeah.
Tom’s laborious drive was not recovered after his physique was discovered, however prosecutors, who spent two years investigating this case, consider Jade is telling the reality — not less than about this.
Tracy Smith: Did you might have any doubt that these images really existed?
Jorge Del Portillo: We talked about that. … But we had little question. We discovered that photograph on Tom’s laptop computer exhibiting that it had been used as a wallpaper, exhibiting that it had been on his laptop computer since August of 2019, so we had little question that these images existed.
In March 2023, three months after she was convicted of Tom’s homicide, Jade was in courtroom for her sentencing, and cried as she listened as a neighborhood pastor shared his recollections of Tom and the butterfly farm.
FRANK MODIC: I nonetheless keep in mind Tom and need I might drop by for a smile, to ask a query about crops or butterflies or simply to recharge these batteries that hold seeming to — to put on down as I grow old. I consider my life is richer as a result of I knew Tom.
Jade’s organic father, who had not spoken publicly since she was charged, put the main focus again on Tom’s betrayal.
STEVEN JANKS: Firstly, I can solely think about what she went by way of when she came upon that Tom, her stepfather, an individual she trusted, that she referred to as dad, was a sick, perverted particular person. … All I can say is that this combat will not be over. I really consider that an injustice has taken place.
Jade Janks spoke that day, too.
JADE JANKS: Tom got here into my life once I was just a bit woman and exerted affect throughout that early stage of improvement once I was nonetheless figuring issues out. Unfortunately, that affect manifested itself into inappropriate contact, coercion, reckless habits, and full violation of what I now notice was years of psychological manipulation. All of this got here crashing down on me when I discovered tons of of bare images of myself on his laptop, I felt shattered.
Jade didn’t inform this story throughout trial, and “48 Hours” cannot confirm it. Jade nonetheless insists she did not kill Tom, and solely admits to masking up his useless physique.
JADE JANKS: I’m nonetheless choosing up the items and it is my sincerest hope that over the following few years I can put the items again and heal from this trauma. I’m sorry I did not act the way in which I used to be speculated to that day. I give it some thought day-after-day since.
The choose sentenced Jade to serve 25 years to life. As the prosecution seems to be again on a troublesome and emotional case, they are saying it might have simply turned out very in another way.
Jorge Del Portillo: She might have gotten away with homicide had she carried out her plan … and the police did a welfare examine and located Tom laying in his — in his mattress, she would have gotten away with homicide.
Jade Janks might be eligible for parole in 2038. She is interesting her conviction.
“48 HOURS” POST MORTEM
In this week’s “Post Mortem” podcast, host Anne-Marie Green, correspondent Tracy Smith and producer Sarah Prior focus on the tons of of nude images of Jade Janks discovered on her stepfather’s laptop, the so-called “fixer” Jade reached out to for assist, and the textual content messages from Jade that inform a weird story about what may’ve really occurred to Tom.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Sarah Prior. Cindy Cesare is the event producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the sector producer. Gregory Kaplan and Ken Blum are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
